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April 03, 2025
 

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PHARMACEUTICALS

From October, patients who choose the original versions of drugs with expired patents over their generic counterparts will shoulder higher costs.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Sep 15, 2024
Out-of-pocket costs for off-patent drugs to rise in October
Moisturizing ointments and patches are among the 1,095 items to be affected by the revision.
Hiroyuki Mano, director of the National Cancer Center Japan's (NCC) research institute, explains on Wednesday the use of mice bearing patients' cancer tissues to screen drug candidates for their efficacy.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Sep 13, 2024
New mouse models can boost Japan's drug development: National Cancer Center
The tumor-bearing mice retain many of the characteristics of the patients' cancer tissues, so favorable drug test results are likelier to be replicated in human trials.
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office's public search facility in Alexandria, Virginia
ASIA PACIFIC
Aug 30, 2024
U.S. funded over 1,000 patents for China-based researchers, data shows
The U.S. patent data could amplify calls to cancel or renegotiate the landmark U.S.-China Science and Technology Agreement.
Although Truvada has been used globally as an HIV prevention drug for years, the movement toward expanding its use as preexposure prophylaxis in Japan has been slow.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Aug 29, 2024
Health ministry approves Truvada as HIV prevention drug
Truvada is the first drug approved in Japan for both the treatment and prevention of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.
Japan's pharmaceutical shares have gained 10% since the start of July through last week.
BUSINESS / Companies
Aug 27, 2024
Japan's pharmaceutical stocks surge to record highs after market rout
The firms' market performance suggest investors favor defensive shares amid concern that global economic growth will slow.
Health workers and patients in a ward for women infected with mpox at a hospital in Bujumbura, Burundi, on Thursday.
WORLD / Science & Health
Aug 23, 2024
WHO says partners can start talks to buy mpox vaccines before its approval
Traditionally, organizations like Gavi, which helps lower-income countries buy vaccines, can only start purchasing shots once they have approval from the WHO.
U.K. authorities have approved lecanemab, a novel Alzheimer's drug developed by Eisai, making Britain the first country in Europe to greenlight the drug.
JAPAN
Aug 23, 2024
Britain OKs Eisai's novel Alzheimer's drug lecanemab
The United Kingdom is the first country in Europe to greenlight the drug.
Health minister Keizo Takemi fields questions from reporters in March after a Cabinet meeting to deal with health problems caused by Kobayashi Pharmaceutical's beni kōji red yeast rice supplements.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Aug 14, 2024
Health Minister Keizo Takemi on how to improve Japan's health care system
Digitalization, hiring high-skilled foreign workers and increasing wages are among the steps that Japan could take.
In the past 11 months, health minister Keizo Takemi has been charting his own path, seeking to make Japan's health care policies more global and digitalized.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Aug 14, 2024
Global mindset crucial for reform of Japan's health care, minister says
International strategies and domestic health care reform are inextricably linked, says health minister Keizo Takemi.
Former Kobayashi Pharmaceutical President Akihiro Kobayashi (second from right) speaks during a news conference in Osaka on Aug. 8 along with President Satoshi Yamane (third from right).
JAPAN / Society
Aug 14, 2024
Kobayashi Pharma fails to report 11 more suspected deaths
The 11 cases had been classified into a wrong category in the process of sorting out the inquiries made to its call center.
A petrochemical plant in China. Asia's producers face the toughest outlook, with oversupply likely to persist.
BUSINESS / Companies / ANALYSIS
Aug 9, 2024
Petrochemical makers enter survival mode amid global glut
Major petrochemical producers in Asia and Europe are selling assets, shutting older plants, and retrofitting facilities.
Former Kobayashi Pharmaceutical President Akihiro Kobayashi (right) and Satoshi Yamane, the new president, bow in apology over health problems caused by its beni kōji products, during a news conference in the city of Osaka on Thursday.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Aug 8, 2024
Kobayashi Pharma to withdraw from beni kōji product segment
The firm said it would offer compensation to those who suffered health problems linked to their products and prevent a recurrence of the incident.
The Mefeego pill pack
JAPAN / Society
Aug 5, 2024
Japan's health ministry considers wider availability for abortion pill
Currently, the medication can only be administered in hospitals with inpatient capabilities.
A health ministry panel has approved Eli Lilly's donanemab drug for Alzheimer's patients.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Aug 2, 2024
Japan's health ministry set to approve second Alzheimer's drug
Donanemab, developed by U.S. pharmaceutical firm Eli Lilly, has been backed by a ministry panel.
As of March 2023, there were 86 medicines that had been approved in Europe or the United States but remained unavailable in Japan.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Jul 30, 2024
Japan unveils plan to improve access to foreign drugs
The road map to address what is known as "drug loss" envisions that development of in-demand medicines will start by April 2026.
Leqembi, which was developed by U.S. multinational Biogen and Japanese-based Eisai, is the brand name of an active substance called lecanemab, which is used to treat adults with mild memory and cognitive problems resulting from the early stages of the common type of dementia.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Jul 27, 2024
European medicines watchdog rejects Eisai's new Alzheimer's drug
The watchdog said the risks of side effects, including potential brain bleeding, outweighed the benefits.
Amazon has launched an online service enabling customers in Japan to purchase prescription medications without having to visit physical pharmacies.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jul 24, 2024
Amazon Pharmacy goes live in Japan
Through the new service, Japanese consumers will be able to obtain medications without having to visit physical pharmacies.
As of Sunday, Kobayashi Pharmaceutical reported 279 deaths and 2,274 hospital visits due to health issues related to its beni kōji supplements, among which 461 required hospitalization.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Jul 23, 2024
Kobayashi Pharma's president and chairperson resign over health scandal
For the first time in its history, someone outside of the Osaka-based drugmaker's founding family will become its president.
A 25-miligram bottle of muscle relaxant was discovered missing at Osaka City General Hospital on Friday when hospital officials performed a routine check of a safe that stores pharmaceuticals.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jul 15, 2024
Muscle relaxant goes missing at Osaka hospital
The 25-miligram bottle of the drug, equivalent to 1½ times the lethal dose for an adult, was discovered missing during a routine check on Friday.
Kobayashi Pharmaceutical President Akihiro Kobayashi and others at a news conference in Osaka in March.
JAPAN / Society
Jul 3, 2024
492 people hospitalized for 'beni kōji' supplements
Kobayashi Pharmaceutical says it has received consultations about a further 170 deaths possibly linked to its supplements.
As ‘Buy Canadian’ grows, more U.S. firms say retailers turning away products
Empty shelves with "Buy Canadian Instead" signs are seen in the American Whiskey section of the BC Liquor in Vancouver, British Columbia, on March 10.
Trump unveils 10% global tariff, with Japan levy set at 24%
Trump tosses a MAGA hat to the crowd during an event in which he unveiled new tariffs in the White House on Wednesday.
A Canadian made a weekend trip to Costco a Japanese pastime
Under the watchful eye of Ken Theriault, Costco representative director and Japan country manager, the American membership-model wholesaler has flourished in Japan.
Meiji says sayonara to bottled milk, a staple of Japan's bathhouses
Meiji bottled milk lined up in a fridge at Kosugiyu, a bathhouse in Tokyo. The sticker urges patrons to enjoy the milk one last time before it’s gone.
Japan, South Korea and China vow to strengthen trade ties amid looming U.S. tariffs
Economy, Trade and Industry Minister Yoji Muto (left), South Korean Trade Industry and Energy Minister Ahn Duk-geun (center) and Chinese Commerce Minister Wang Wentao during a trilateral meeting in Seoul on Sunday
Haruki Murakami TV adaptation revisits 30 years of watershed moments
Though Haruki Murakami's trademark whiff of offbeat existentialism is threaded throughout NHK's "After the Quake," the final episode — conceived as a sequel to the story "Super-Frog Saves Tokyo" — is the most stylized, featuring an anthropomorphic talking frog (voiced by Non) and his erstwhile associate Katagiri (Koichi Sato).
A new human trafficking trend emerges from Myanmar scam centers
Victims of scam centers who were tricked or trafficked into working in Myanmar gather at a compound inside KK Park, a fraud center on the country's border with Thailand, after a multinational crackdown in February.
Meiji says sayonara to bottled milk, a staple of Japan's bathhouses
Meiji bottled milk lined up in a fridge at Kosugiyu, a bathhouse in Tokyo. The sticker urges patrons to enjoy the milk one last time before it’s gone.
A Canadian made a weekend trip to Costco a Japanese pastime
Under the watchful eye of Ken Theriault, Costco representative director and Japan country manager, the American membership-model wholesaler has flourished in Japan.
On defense, Japan may avoid Trump's worst impulses — for now
Defense Minister Gen Nakatani and U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth chat after reviewing an honor guard during a welcome ceremony at the Defense Ministry in Tokyo on Sunday.

Podcast

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.
Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Longform

Professional cleaner Hirofumi Sakurai takes a moment to appreciate some photographs in a Gotanda apartment whose occupant died alone.
The last cleanup: Life and death in a lonely Japan
By Johan Brooks

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